Archive for May, 2010

What do you look for in a steak? Price? Hearty flavor? Quality of life for the cattle and a humane slaughter? A healthy feed profile? Eating isn’t simple anymore, and eating meat isn’t what it used to be.

In a world inundated with corn fed, chemically dependant cattle, it is difficult to get a good steak anymore. Have we forgotten what good steak tastes like? Good beef tastes like the earth. Like integrity.

The first real boss I had taught me about integerity. Chef Willie Matson sat me down and explained that a job accomplished with attention and focus was a job well done, even the humble washing of dishes. Living life with full attention and focus is all one can really endeavor to do.

From the farm to your plate takes integrity: cattle raised with respect and fed healthy food; slaughtered quickly and humanely; fabricated by your local butcher or chef. That attention to detail is beginning to happen all around the country. Attention to detail from Adam Sappington at The Country Cat

Cattle raised on industrial feedlots ingest a steady diet of anti-biotics to combat the destructive effects of a corn diet. Certainly pasture raised beef lead a healthier, stress free life without anti-biotics, and the meat is healthier, but a partial grain diet does not necessarily degrade the health of the cattle. In fact, the addition of grain to the diet can heighten the quality of the meat from a consumer’s point of view. Adam’s palate for beef

The important component is the respect being given each animal. That respect extends not only to the animal during the raising period, but also to the slaugther, fabrication, and the presentation to the end consumer…the public. Respect the Customer and the Cattle

Grass fed, healthy cattle can be found. Even grain fed, healthy cattle can be found. Quality meat, raised, slaughtered and fabricated with integrity is out there. Eatwild.com

The customer has to ask for it. Put the onus on the butcher. Ask the restaurant staff where the beef is from. Find out whether you can purchase quality meat direct from the ranchers in your area. In Portland pdxmeat.com

Integrity is beginning to be a valued commodity. How do you like your steak?

The hog has gone the way of the eggplant, of corn, of wheat: pork will soon be produced by white cloaked scientists in laboratorys far away. Dutch scientists are transforming the stem cells from a hog into edible pork. This meat posesses the consistency of a scallop and is deficient in protein, yet could be used as “processed meat in sausages and hamburgers” (Maria Cheng, Scientists turn stem cells into pork. The Associated Press, January 15, 2010.) Physorg.com

Potentially we could feed protein to millions of the hungry. Pork created in the factory would not need the vast amount of land used to raise and feed the hogs. This new meat production may well even be cheaper.

Yet…should we?

We don’t even have sufficient information about the effects of genetically modified food crops. Scientists are blocked from seriously investigating because of “the threat of litigation…they cannot examine whether the genetically modified crops lead to unintended environmental side effects.” (The Editors, Scientific American Magazine, August 2009). Scientific American We are increasing the reach of technology as it is applied to food. Theororeticllaty our entire diet could soon be processed.

More hungry people exist today as a percentage of the population than before the Green Revolution. (Craig Sams. The Little Food Book. Disinformation, 2004) The increase in nitrogen based pesticides and fertilizers has increased the amount of food being prized from the ground. Yet obesity has surpassed hunger. (Health Experts: Obesity Pandemic Looms. The Associated Press. Sept. 3, 2006) MSNBC The dearth of food is not the reason people are hungry: poverty is the root cause of hunger. People losing their land and becoming unable to feed themselves is another facet of this issue.

The medical system is now just beginning to feel the impact that food related disease is having on the populace. The hospitals and medical facilities are still reeling from this onslaught of food related diseases.

Is the food we are eating killing us?

While the idea of food made cheaply (as far as indirect costs to the environment, land use, etc…) seems a tempting way to feed the hungry, it may very well have negative side effects on the human constitution. The actual costs of industrial food production have not suitably been evaluated. Whether it is our inability to control the Industrial Food System or our inpatience as a culture, much of our nation is hurtling toward a society composed of the hungry and the obese.

Every meal counts. More importantly, every dollar spent on those meals counts. In a political system where nothing seems to get done and hope can sometimes be far away, make every dollar count.